


Stuck

by HorriblyHistorical



Category: Leverage
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Claustrophobia, Developing Relationship, Multi, No Sex, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Short & Sweet, Trapped In Elevator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-11
Updated: 2015-07-11
Packaged: 2018-04-08 17:25:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4313850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HorriblyHistorical/pseuds/HorriblyHistorical
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a time and place for Important Relationship Discussions. Trapped in an elevator with a claustrophobe is neither the time, nor the place.</p>
<p>Ambiguously post s05.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stuck

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this [tumblr post](https://www.tumblr.com/reblog/122084358114/VTDugTai?redirect_to=http%3A%2F%2Fother-romantic-verbs.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F122084358114&source=iframe)
> 
> I was sort of picturing a traditional ‘sex while stuck in an elevator’ fic, but because Parker could easily escape and Hardison could probably hack it into moving again it kind of warped a little.

The elevator crept closer and closer to the top floor. It might have been Hardison’s imagination, but it seemed to be taking a lot longer to get between floors than it had when they’d got on in the lobby.

He stared carefully at the little red ‘29′ by the door, counting the seconds as they slowly climbed higher and the numbers ticked over and over until -

They stopped. There was no shuddering jolt, no fanfare at all.

The numbers just stopped ticking, the gears just stopped grinding.

The elevator just stopped moving.

“Oh no, we’re stuck in an elevator,” Parker said flatly.

“Nah, babe, I’ll just hack into the network with my-”

Parker stared forcefully at Hardison. He took the hint and shut up.

“Oh no. We’re _stuck_ in an _elevator_ ,” Parker repeated in the same tone of voice people usually reserve for foreigners and the hard of hearing.

Eliot settled back against the metal railing with a sigh. “Parker, we’re really not...”

Hardison fell back to the railing as well and elbowed Eliot in the side, helping him catch the hint. Eliot scowled and jostled Hardison back.

“Hey!”

“Dammit, Hardison. I told you, don’t hit me unless you wanna be hit back.”

Hardison sighed and reluctantly acknowledged the point. But he refused to relinquish his position against the elevator railing. If they were going to be ‘stuck’ in here he wanted to _see_ that the walls weren’t actually closing in.

Eliot’s arm brushed against his – a line of solid warmth that distracted Hardison from the subtle press of the elevator walls.

A loud huff came from by the doors. Parker. Her face was twisted into the same frustrated expression she’d had when Hardison questioned the necessity of storing 52 unopened cereal boxes beneath the bed.

Hardison caught Eliot’s eye and nodded toward her. Parker probably had a good reason for wanting to play the ‘normal people’ game right now. Or if not a ‘good’ reason, at least one that made sense within her own somewhat idiosyncratic worldview. Either way, Hardison planned to go along with it.

“Alright, fine,” Eliot grumbled. “And why are we ‘stuck’ in here again?”

Parker opened her eyes as wide as they could go and stared at Hardison, making a weird kind of ‘go on’ gesture towards Eliot as she did so.

“Babe, that only works if I know what you want me to do.”

Parker rolled her eyes. “Stuck? Elevator?”

A beat of confused silence.

“Like the movie?”

The silence could no longer be described as confused - a better term might be ‘pregnant with the dawn of terrible understanding’.

Tension practically poured off Eliot. Hardison couldn’t blame him, hell, _he_ felt like he’d missed a stair and fallen ten feet.

“Babe, no.” Hardison said as soon as he felt capable of words.

At the same time, Eliot asked “You mean the mark’s movie?”

Parker nodded. “Yeah, with all those girls in it. That Hardison found on the mark’s computer instead of taxes.”

“Oh, man.” Hardison said.

He and Parker had discussed porn, in an abstract sense, back when they’d first been figuring things out. They had discussed other people too, because Hardison was a 21st century man and he’d understood that you had to be clear on these things ever since he’d been invited to join his college roommate’s girlfriend (but not the college roommate) at her bi-monthly mini-orgy.

What they hadn’t discussed was the wisdom of trapping Eliot Spencer in a small space for a surprise threesome.

They were going to die.

A calloused hand cupped the nape of his neck.

“Breathe, Hardison.”

Hardison focused on the slow stretch of his lungs. The steady flow of air in, and out.

Time passed.

The rising panic slowed.

Eliot’s hand stayed warm on his neck, pulling Hardison back out of his head. He slowly became aware of Parker’s presence. Not touching, quite, but the tips of her shoes were only a fingerbreadth away from his own and her hand hovered just over his on the rail.

“I’m breathing, I’m fine.” Hardison said. He smiled at Parker and shrugged Eliot’s hand away. “See? All good.”

Parker smiled back and let out a large whoosh of air. “Good.”

She didn’t seem to move, but somehow there was an extra few inches of space between them anyway. Hardison appreciated it. The amount of air in the elevator might not change but having a little bubble seemed to help anyway.

Eliot didn’t step back, but Hardison could cope with looming from the side way easier than he could cope with looming from the front.

“She spring this on you too?” Eliot drawled.

“Do I look like I was expecting that?”

Eliot slumped into the wall like he was trying to meld with it and ducked his head to rub briefly at his temples.

“Look, _communication_ ,” he said to Parker. “I know you and Sophie talked about that. Big stuff like this you have to work out as a _couple_ first.”  
  
Hardison nodded eagerly. Not that he hadn’t considered it once or twice, but Eliot still had that whole ‘straight and narrow’ kinda vibe going on. You’d think, as much action as Eliot got, he’d have gone that way at least once in the past half-decade if ‘that way’ was the way he went.

So to speak.

Parker still looked vaguely confused. Not ‘I don’t get what you’re saying’ confused, more ‘I get what you’re saying but don’t see how it’s relevant’ confused.

Hardison groped for a useful clarification that didn’t revolve around banging his … bro? Buddy? Co-minion?

“It’s like my blanket,” Hardison said. “It was old, and tatty, and I didn’t mind you cutting holes in it to dress like a ghost. And yeah, you might have known I wouldn’t mind, but it’s still nice to be consulted _before_ the ends get chopped off.”

“But I did ask,” Parker said. “I asked you if you thought Eliot might be lonely, and you said yes. And I asked if you thought he was hot, and you said yes.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Hardison saw Eliot’s jaw drop just a bit.

Parker continued. “And this morning I asked if you thought talking to Eliot was a good idea and you said yes to that too!”

Hardison’s own jaw dropped, and not just a bit. “I thought you meant about speed-dating or something! Singles’ mixers. I thought it’d be funny. I didn’t think-”

And here he made an awkward series of back-and-forth hand gestures that essentially boiled down to ‘him-me-we-you-Eliot-help!’

“Singles’ mixers?” Eliot asked in his driest voice. Hardison hadn’t heard him sound this unimpressed since Parker had stolen his handcuffs and Hardison had lost the key.

“I didn’t think she was talking about an impromptu threesome!”

“It’s not impromptu – I asked days ago.”

“Alright, fine. But in the future, I need the exact phrase ‘Hardison, do you want to have a threesome with Eliot?’ ok? Or else I’m not going to realise and then it’s going to _feel _impromptu.”__

Parker rolled her eyes. “Fine. Hardison, do you want to have a threesome with Eliot?”

“Not now!”

“But later then?”

Eliot covered his mouth, hiding what Hardison suspected was a truly shit-eating grin. “Wow, guys. I’m truly flattered.”

Hardison shot him a look of ‘I hate you, help me!’

‘She’s your girlfriend’ was the message Hardison took from Eliot’s return of a single raised eyebrow and a slight smirk.

“This your first rodeo, Hardison?” Eliot asked. “You’re doing great, I swear I can’t tell you’re completely new to this.”

“He’s not new,” Parker told him. “He’s done lots of threesomes and stuff. He told me ages ago.”

Hardison sighed. “That doesn’t mean I want one now.”

Parker’s nodded forcefully. “I know, later.”

Hardison sank back against the elevator wall and tried really hard to ignore the weird look in Eliot’s eyes. He did not have time for looks, weird, potentially lustful or otherwise. At this point he just wanted out of the elevator. “Parker, do you really want a threesome?”

Parker’s look spoke volumes, most of them titled ‘well, duh’.

“Okay then, fine. Once we’re out of this elevator and done with the job we can make that happen. But for right now I’m going to get this elevator moving again, yeah?”

Parker wriggled into the gap between Hardison and Eliot and pressed a soft kiss to Hardison’s jaw. “Okay … and I’m sorry I scared you. New rule? No more big stuff in elevators?”

“Great rule, love it,” Hardison agreed. He already had his smartphone out, tapping through the menu for the elevator controls.

“Want to have sex later?” Parker asked.

Hardison hummed absently. “Sure, babe.”

The words penetrated a few seconds later. The tone a few seconds after that.

He looked up.

“Hang on, were you asking Eliot?”

Parker shrugged. “We did just do the couple talk, didn’t we? And if I shouldn’t spring it on you I probably shouldn’t spring it on Eliot either.”

Hardison was aware his mouth was doing the goldfish thing, he just couldn’t quite come up with a good rebuttal given Parker was technically right and Eliot was doing that thing where he actually looked happy rather than vaguely murderous and that always did bad things to Hardison’s persuasion stat.

“Are you going to say anything?” Hardison eventually settled on asking Eliot.

Eliot looked contemplative. “Not going to say it ain’t nice to be asked.”

“So that’s a yes?” Parker asked. She was practically vibrating with excitement.

“I think that’s ‘come round later and we’ll talk about it over a beer’. I didn’t get any more warning than Hardison got after all, even if you’ve been thinking about it for weeks.”

“That’s fair,” Parker said cautiously. “Right?” She darted a quick look up at Hardison.

“I’d say so,” Hardison agreed as the lift lurched back into motion.

He opened a new tab on his smart phone as the little red numbers ticked higher.

Condoms – three sizes.

Lube – variety pack.

Latex gloves – biggest box.

Home delivery.


End file.
